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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Devil’s Arithmetic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory
Sacrifice
Jewish Culture and Identity
Hope
Summary
Analysis
The commandant is there again the next morning for a roll call. Hannah sees that Shmuel has been badly beaten and is standing with the violinist from the klezmer band and four strangers. When Hannah tries to ask about Yitzchak, Gitl tells her to be quiet.
Every appearance of the commandant seems to signal that death is coming soon, once again invoking the Jewish theme of the Angel of Death.
Themes
The commandant gives a speech about how Shmuel and the other men standing in front of him are as worthless as garbage and have just failed in an escape attempt. He says that the camp has been too easy on these men. The commandant lines the six men up against the wall. Fayge notices what’s happening and rushes out to kiss Shmuel. The commandant orders for his men to fire, then he tells them to dispose of the bodies in the chimneys.
Although anti-Semitism has been present throughout the novel, this speech is perhaps the most extensive occasion where a Nazi explains how he really feels that Jewish people are less than human. Hannah then witnesses a clear example of this as the Nazis proceed to brutally murder several people. Hannah will never forget what she saw, and this experience brings her closer to her relatives who lived through the Holocaust.
Themes
Rivka whispers that the boy carrying away Fayge’s body is her brother Wolfe. The blokova comes by and orders everyone to get back to work. She has a fresh bloody bandage on her hand. When Hannah finally gets to talk with Gitl, she reveals that Yitzchak wasn’t spotted anywhere among the dead bodies.
Wolfe seemed like he was on the verge of death earlier but has someone managed to outlive someone like Shmuel, who seemed strong and vibrant. This juxtaposition reveals how survival in camps could seem arbitrary. It also reinforces how important it was for people like Wolfe to hold on to hope, even when the odds seemed to be stacked against them.
Themes
Later that afternoon, while working in the kitchen, Hannah tells Rivka, Shifre, and Esther that she has a new story for them. She tells them that six million Jewish people will die in concentration camps like the one they’re currently in. But she also says that some Jewish people will survive and form their own state. Other Jewish people will go on to become politicians and movie stars.
While Hannah is referring to Jewish people around the world when she speaks of the future, she is primarily referring to Israel, the country officially formed shortly after the end of World War II, largely in response to the Holocaust. Hannah is giving them hope that even if they don’t survive the camp, the Jewish community will, and so in a way they will live on as a part of that community.
Themes
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Rivka says that Hannah’s memories of the future are impossible, but Hannah says she is able to acknowledge many seemingly contradictory memories about her life, in America, in Lublin, and in the shtetl. As Hannah is telling the other girls about how Jewish people will survive, a guard comes over and says that the girls are talking, not working. He says he needs three more people to fill up a load. There are four girls, so he picks Esther, then Shifre, then finally Rivka.
Just as Hannah is trying to give her friends hope, one of the concentration camp guards illustrates the unfairness of camp life. Rivka has learned better than just about anyone how to survive in a camp, and yet she ends up caught with Esther, who deliberately avoided Rivka’s lessons about survival.
Themes
Hannah realizes that she has a whole life in the future, but Rivka only has the current moment. She takes off the kerchief that Rivka is wearing, says she’ll put it on herself (believing the guard won’t know the difference between the two of them), and tells Rivka to run to for the garbage dump. Rivka takes off.
This scene is the culmination of everything Hannah has learned in the past, as Hannah repays Rivka for her help with the ultimate sacrifice—her own life. This connects back to her name of Chaya, since her ultimate purpose in the story is to give “life” to Rivka.
Themes
As Hannah, Esther, and Shifre walk with the guard, she begins to tell them the story of a girl named Hannah Stern who lives in New Rochelle. As she’s telling the story, the three of them enter the doors to Lilith’s Cave, where everything is always dark.
Hannah tries to give her friends hope as they prepare for death. The doors that Hannah enters in this passage recall how she originally entered a door to go back in time in the first place.
Themes
